Blog

Confirmation in the 10th grade is a source of
pride to teenagers who claim their Judaism at different stages in their lives
by confirming what they can at this point. It’s a realistic and optimistic
observation about who they are, today.

It’s realistic because they know that the world is filled
with choices for them. There are no boundaries of any sort in the world they’re
entering as young adults. The Internet and globalization have given them keys
to a world in which they can copy, paste, and edit their view of
everything. That’s why our first trimester
addresses their image of God in Judaism. One God, individually imagined, gives
them room to grow with God as they enter a world of their own successes,
struggles, and outcomes. At the end of the trimester, their personal statements
about faith are profoundly clearer than they were before we began our studies,
and admittedly clearer than their parents’ own faith commitments, in some
cases. My hope for them is that they can relate to God as they grow, without
fear that the God of their childhood can’t grow with them into adulthood. God should be a source of all they need in
life, in the best and worst of times.

It’s optimistic because rather than closing the door on new
revelations, we’re opening the way for them to confirm, today, what they can
and with every expectation that there’s more to come. Teenagers don’t want to
be told what to believe; they prefer to learn what’s possible. In Judaism,
there is no dogma about God, except that when we imagine God, we imagine one,
not two or three. While there’s room to consider the possibility of none, at
this age, I like to remain optimistic, too; teenagers are invincible and
powerful, but years and experience often develop gratitude and awe if they’re
open to it. I believe they are. I always believe they are, because teenagers
want for themselves what we wanted for ourselves when we were their age. It’s
difficult to surrender invincibility and power to finitude and mortality; but,
if we see God as an unconditionally loving parent/partner, then we lose nothing
and gain everything over a lifetime.

This Shabbat, we honor our Confirmands and thank them for
their year of study with their rabbis and cantor, and for the promise they
demonstrated to us and God that the future of Judaism is unfolding in their
dreams and visions. Please extend your congratulations to the following
students and their parents:

Our trip to
Cuba took two-and-a-half hours by plane and 60 years by history. Travel to
Havana from Houston’s IAH was easy and customs in Cuba wasn’t difficult. The
journey really began as our eyes opened to a world that stopped changing in
1959. Buildings, cars, infrastructure, and people have been locked in a bubble
that hasn’t known real change since Castro’s Revolution.

Across the
street from our hotel was the Habana Riviera Hotel, Meyer Lansky’s notorious hangout
and casino. To enter it was to cross a threshold into 1950. The sounds of live
saxophone music still poured out of a small lounge off the lobby. Peering
inside, three people sat along the wall against a backdrop of chairs, wall sconces,
wallpaper, and light fixtures that hailed from mid-century, including the
nicotine that hung in the air. Outside, we found classic cars painted in
classic Cuban colors. Bright red, gleaming sea blue, and pale purple
convertible 1950-era Chevys, Chryslers, and Cadillacs caught the attention of
tourists with cameras and a few Cuban dollars (CUCs) for rides along the
seawall, or malecón.

In Old
Havana, the city revealed what our guide called "a city of contrasts.” Extraordinary
buildings of great craftsmanship and design stood in various stages of disrepair
and decline. The Hotel Rachel, a Jewish establishment with a mezuzah on the
front door and every guest room still contained the original furniture,
cage-elevator, and extraordinary stained-glass ceiling that illuminated the
5-story atrium from rooftop to lobby. We felt like time-travelers looking for
people to emerge and tell us about life there. Instead, we settled for a fresh
espresso served on small tables in the lobby where a few hotel guests gathered
for lunch and conversation. Around Old Havana were signs of some city life,
including former churches that were overtaken by the government and used for
civic purposes, former mansions now occupied by more than 50 families living in
squalor, and some signs of renewal where bright Cuban colors still reflected
the sun pouring into large city squares from the Caribbean sky.

Monuments
abounded to honor Cuban heroes, most notably Jose Marti, who aimed to liberate Cuba
from Spanish Colonialists. He is adored by Cubans and remembered for the hope
he gave them. Obvious to everyone were billboards that celebrated the
Revolution and its leaders, chief among them, Fidel Castro. Though the bulk of
Castro’s communism died with the fall of the Soviet Union, socialism persists
in a struggling economy and fledgling private enterprises. Much of the country
subsists on government rations and $20 per month on average. Even then, stores
and inventories lacked goods. More tourism and regular cruise ships deepen
daily strife because travelers need to be fed. "Paladors,” or private
restaurants, feed hungry tourist appetites with food that most Cubans need, but
will never see or taste.

Our hotel
was a haven for tired soles. The pool and air-conditioned rooms brought us
"back to the future” where some familiar comforts were very welcome. Our hotel
was also a haven for tired souls. We gathered to talk more casually about what
we saw, how we felt about it, and what we thought we could do about it. Our
guide told us that there was little if anything we could do. Our American
dollars and sentiments could never be enough; it would take another
transformation of the government to change the slow trend away from such
persistent and harsh conditions. Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother and successor,
will step down in two years. After him, it’s unclear who will lead and what
will become of Cuba and its endearing people, warm spirit, and beautiful
landscape. Until better times, Congregation Beth Israel will aim to support Havana’s
Jewish community with gifts and donations, just as other congregations and
Jewish Federations have done.

Cuba is an
island full of potential. We saw buds of freedom in artists whose music,
crafts, and dances were never held down by dictators or edicts. We brought home
samples of their music on CDs, examples of their art on canvases and tiles, and
memories of their moves on the dance floor. The human spirit always finds the
path of least resistance to express what God created and man cannot suppress.

There is
much more to say about our week in Cuba. Blogs, sermons, and High Holy Day
messages will surely address how a people, among them Jewish families who share
a covenant bound up in the words of Torah, is on its way to becoming something
more than it is, today.